Meditation: The New Wellbeing Must?

Meditation is one of those things that many of us perhaps haven’t yet tried out yet – but somehow have always meant to. The practice has its many devotees though, who are often vocal about its results. And that’s always a reminder to those among us to give meditation a try sometime.
And with recent reports in the news about meditation having positive health effects, now could be a good time to investigate further. Results from studies appear to show that meditation can bring about positive changes within the human brain. However, the link between meditation and general wellbeing isn’t clear cut, so it may be that further studies in the future will help us further understand what it is that meditation can do for us.

So, what are the good things that meditation is reputed to bring about in terms of our health and wellbeing?

The most talked about result of meditation is that it can help to reduce stress. Whether that’s down to simply controlled breathing, or to the meditator taking ‘time out’ from the stresses of daily life, nobody knows for sure. But it’s safe to say that taking a few minutes out from the frenetic pace of modern life – and its constant stream of information – is bound to provide us with a little bit of breathing space, and some time to gather ourselves together. In fact, some say that 20 minutes of meditation can be more helpful than taking a nap of the same duration.

And of course, if we’re less stressed, we’re less prone to its long term complications over time. Stress can lead not just to feelings of worry and inability to concentrate – it can potentially contribute to high blood pressure too. So anything that we do to manage stress has to be a positive wellbeing choice.

While it may have a perception of being something new age and perhaps even quite difficult to learn, meditation doesn’t need to be something that will require much effort or any expense. There is a lot of good information on sites like BBC Health and Web MD – some provide simple guides for meditation while others carry stories about how the practice can improve health.

So, no matter whether you’re looking for a new way to manage your stress levels, or just want to try something new in terms of wellbeing, meditation could be well worth investigating.

Jen Jones writes across a number of topics for a range of health and wellbeing websites including Health-on-Line